`She's A Tough One' -- Umatilla Woman Likes Helping Horses

UMATILLA -- Barbara Woodring may be 5-foot-1, but don't let that fool you. She's used to dealing with critters many times her size.

For 20 years, the grandmother of four has worked on thousands of horses that are 900 to 1,600 pounds.

"I travel all day long visiting my little friends, doing their feetsies," said Woodring, a farrier.

At one stop in Sorrento recently, she worked on the hooves of four horses.

Woodring, who wore a bathing suit, work jeans, boots, red bandanna and farrier apron, cleaned the sole and trimmed the frog, a pad that is "the shock absorber of the horse's foot."

"The majority of horses don't wear shoes in Florida," she said. "I'm working barefoot horses today."

Tina Pendley, owner of the four Sorrento horses, said she has been using Woodring for the past four years.

"She does it all by herself," Pendley said. "She's a tough one -- that's for sure."

Whether or not a horse has shoes, their hooves should be trimmed every six weeks. If the horse has shoes, they can be reset three times before needing new ones. Woodring said a shoeless horse takes about 15 minutes to complete and a shod horse about 45 minutes.

When replacing horseshoes, Woodring pulls off the old shoes and levels the hooves. She uses eight nails and pounds them in with an 8-ounce driving hammer, clinches them over and clips them off.

"It's no more different than getting your nails done," she said. "It's just a part of their life. They just lift their leg up for me."

She learned the trade from Claude Vance, 66, a retired farrier with 44 years of experience.

Before that, Woodring was a school-bus driver and, as a single parent, raised two children. To save money, she decided to learn how to take care of her own horses.

Through the years, Woodring has been "bit, kicked and stepped on," she said. "I'd rather be kicked any day than stepped on."